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The Birth of the California Current Acidification Network

In the mid-2000s, Hog Island Oyster Company in Tomales Bay had grown into a thriving business that included an oyster bar in San Francisco’s historic Ferry Building.

Then, abruptly, Sawyer couldn’t find any more baby oysters to grow. He’d long bought tiny seed oysters from commercial hatcheries along the Pacific Coast, which produced billions of larvae in a typical year. Suddenly, most of these larvae were dying. “The hatcheries were experiencing unusually high mortalities,” says Sawyer. “At the critical moment, when we needed to plant our seed oysters, none were available.”

Winds on the West Coast often blow from land to sea and push ocean surface waters away from the shore. As this happens, colder and nutrient-rich water from the deep rises to replace it. These upwellings make the waters along the West Coast some of the most biologically productive and ecologically diverse in the world. But the water that rises from the deep is also naturally more acidic because as dead marine life sinks into the deep, then decomposes, it produces CO2.

When the already CO2-enriched upwelling deep sea rises to the surface and encounters even more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it turns “corrosive,” says former California Sea Grant director Moll.

This hits shellfish hatchlings particularly hard. Oyster larvae build their first protective shells within six hours after emerging from the egg. The shells protect the larvae as they float in the water column, where they’ll remain until they’re large enough to attach to rocks or other substrates.

If calcium carbonate is scarce on the day of hatching because the wind has caused mineral-dissolving deep water to well up, the effort of building the shell can easily overwhelm young oysters. Those that don’t die outright become highly susceptible to disease and predators. If any survive at all, they grow unusually slowly.

California Mandates Coastal Cities Plan for Future Sea-Level Rise

Governor Newsom recently signed SB 272, which requires local governments to create sea-level rise plans based on the best available science, conduct vulnerability assessments — including for at-risk communities — determine adaptation strategies and sketch out a list of recommended projects with timelines.

The governor vetoed a similar bill last fall, noting budget constraints. Laird said his team worked with Newsom’s office to ensure there are dollars in the budget for local planning on sea-level rise. California’s final budget included $1.1 billion in investments for coastal resilience programs over multiple years.

“The storms that we just had [last winter] changed the equation for people who didn’t even realize they had some of the coming impacts,” he said.

Local governments have until January 2034 to develop sea-level rise plans.

“Everybody now sees that deadline ten years from now and recognizes that this is real,” said Larry Goldzband, Executive Director of the Bay Conservation Development Commission (the analog to the Coastal Commission in the San Francisco Bay Area). “There’s going to be huge amounts of social and economic dislocation due to flooding if we don’t adapt.”

Transforming Sea Level Rise into an Opportunity

In a recent paper in the Humboldt Journal of Social Relations, the authors write that sea level rise “presents people in our region with an opportunity to work together and envision a more just and resilient future.” From a wide swath of academia, Indigenous Tribes and community as well as government organizations, including Humboldt Waterkeeper, the authors are members of the interdisciplinary Sea Level Rise Institute at Cal Poly Humboldt. Sea level rise “can only begin to be understood and addressed if different disciplines and types of knowledge are brought together,” they write.

Newsom Signs ‘Milestone’ Legislation Ending Exemptions for Coastal Oil and Gas Development

At the end of last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed new legislation to end special treatment for oil and gas companies seeking to develop facilities along the California coast while simultaneously bolstering offshore wind development efforts.

Senate Bill 704, introduced by state Sen. Dave Min (D-Irvine), removes a 1970s-era loophole – the “industrial override” provision of the California Coastal Act – that allows oil and gas companies to develop facilities in the coastal zone, including new or expanded refineries and petrochemical plants, without having to comply with state resource protection policies, as long as certain requirements are met.

What exactly does this mean for Humboldt?

Humboldt Bay has approximately 1,200 acres zoned for Coastal-Dependent Industrial uses — meaning, any industry built in those areas must be somehow dependent on the sea. Planning for CDI uses was done in the 1970s, when demand for land to accommodate sea-dependent businesses was much higher than it is now. The Humboldt Bay Area Plan, a component of the county’s Local Coastal Program, includes marine oil terminals and offshore oil service or supply bases as “principal uses allowed” on CDI lands.

SB 704 prohibits “new or expanded oil and gas development from being considered a Coastal-Dependent Industrial facility,” and would only permit those developments if they are determined to be “consistent with all applicable provisions of the act,” according to the text of the bill. Under SB 704, new or expanded oil and gas facilities will have to comply with policies outlined in Chapter 3 of the Coastal Act to be permitted, in line with “virtually all other coastal development.”

The new law would make it very, very difficult for oil and gas developers to build such facilities around Humboldt Bay, Jennifer Kalt, executive director of the Humboldt Waterkeeper, formerly the Humboldt Baykeeper, told the Outpost.

“If the federal government wanted to sell oil or gas leases here, we could much more easily block any kind of support facilities [that would be built] around Humboldt Bay or on the Samoa Peninsula now that this law has been signed,” Kalt said. “This is a huge milestone.”

Conversely, SB 704 encourages port development that contributes to offshore wind energy deployment.

Governor Newsom Signs McGuire-Authored Bill to Expedite California’s Offshore Wind Permitting Process

Press release from Senator McGuire’s Office:

Senate President Designee Mike McGuire’s groundbreaking legislation to expedite offshore wind development to help meet the Golden State’s long-term electricity demand and nation-leading climate goals has been signed into law by Governor Newsom.

SB 286 – the Offshore Wind Expediting Act – will accelerate the offshore wind permitting process through the State Coastal Commission and State Lands Commission. At the same time, it will ensure environmental safeguards will remain in place, California’s storied fishing fleet interests are protected, and will advance resources that benefit communities and develop family-sustaining jobs through career training programs.

SB 286 requires the Coastal Commission to bring the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the State Lands Commission, the Ocean Protection Council, representatives from the commercial fishing industry, representatives from the offshore wind industry, federal agencies, labor, Native American tribes and other community leaders together over the next two years. This working group will create a statewide standard to ensure offshore wind development is expedited and will develop data-driven strategies to avoid and minimize impacts to ocean fisheries and to the maximum extent possible, mitigate for unavoidable impacts.

Read the entire press release